Make your own thread rack

Sewing Bee Fabrics Tutorial

Wall Mounted Thread Rack

Ok, so strictly speaking this isn't a sewing tutorial, but I needed some more space and my threads seem to wind themselves around each other every time I close the draw so it was time to move them!


This wall mounted thread rack will hold 42 threads and their matching bobbins.


What materials you will need:
A plank of wood (Mine was approx 14cm wide and I cut it down to 90cm length)
Wood glue
4 Wall plugs
4 Screws
42 6mm dowels
6mm wooden rod (You'll need 252cm to have all 42 as full spindles. Mine was only 240 so I just popped 2 dowels into the bottom ends).


What tools you will need:
Saw (only if you need to trim your plank of wood down).
Drill
Sandpaper
Screwdriver
Hammer
Garden secateurs




How I made it:
First, I trimmed my plank of wood down to 90cm

Next, I figured out how I wanted to space out my threads, so I took the widest threads I am likely to want up there and measured. I found the best for me was to mark 2cm in for each corner for a screw, then start marking where I want my thread spindles from 5cm from each edge. This leave you with 80cm in the middle.


I marked 4 lines right along the length of the plank, at 3cm, 6cm, 10cm and 13cm. On these lines, I made markings every 4cm. So, including the beginning and end point, this makes 21 marks on each line.

I used a 6mm drill bit and marked the drill with a sticky label at just over 1cm. I used this as a guide to stop drilling to make sure all holes were about the same depth and none went through the plank. Also drill holes through the plank in the corners for your screws. The hole size will depend on your screw size. Make it fit as snug as possible.

Next cut up your 6mm wooden rod into 6cm sections. I found that garden secateurs were best for this. I just made sure I cut part way then turned it to avoid squashing the end.

Next I sanded down the edges around my drilling and the edge of the rods that would be facing out with a bit of sandpaper

Apply a little glue to the end of the rod and push into the drill holes. You will want the 1st and 3rd row made up of rods and the 2nd and 4th row made up with dowels.


To get them all looking even, I used a piece of cardboard as a marker to push them all down to the same height.

For the small dowels, I just gave them a tap with the hammer with some glue already in the hole. Don't forget to wipe off any excess glue as you go.

Wait for the glue to dry then paint it

To fix it to the wall, screw the screws in so that the ends are about level with the end of the plank. Then holding it to the wall where you want it, screw the screws into the wall to leave marks. This will then be your drill guide. Screw the thread stand into place with wall plugs in place.

Now all that is left is to add your threads then look incredibly smug with yourself!

We hope you enjoy our tutorials and love hearing what you think so please leave us a comment or send me an email to linda@sewingbeefabrics.co.uk
Happy Sewing!

The Ultimate Baby Proof Bib

Sewing Bee Fabrics Tutorial

The Ultimate Baby Proof Bib

My 9 month old baby is getting more and more cunning as the days go on, and shop bought bibs haven’t stood a chance against him for some time – Velcro got ripped straight off, and over head bibs just ended up flung over the shoulder or under an arm, so I decided it was time to come up with a new design!

What you will need:
A fat quarter of PUL material (or whatever else you prefer to make it in. I like PUL for this as it moves like clothes but is waterproof which annoys babies less but keeps the clothes underneath clean and dry. It is also machine washable at up to 60°c and doesn’t tend to stain or crease.


2-3 meters of bias binding
3 sets KAM snaps (or other poppers)

How to make it:
First I grabbed a bib he already had to decide on the size needed for the head hole and traced around this in the centre of a bit of wrapping paper. It was an overhead pull on bib so I just took a little off from the sides to make it fit snugger. I measured how long I wanted the bib with a tape measure from the neck line down his front then added 5cm. This is the length of the bib in total. Next I measured from underarm to underarm over the chest and added 5cm. This is the width of the bib. The width either side of the head hole is how far across the shoulders you want the bib to go. The top tab needs to be about the same width as the underarm tab. These need to be long enough to overlap by few centimetres comfortably under the arm.


Below I have drawn the pattern as a standard bib, and how to adapt it to add a pocket attached on.

Cut the shape out in PUL fabric then trim the pocket edge with bias binding.

Fold the PUL for the pocket upwards so the diagonal lines up with the edge of the bib. you can either make it so the pocket is always there, or so it tucks up behind the bib when you don't want it (always there is a little easier to make).


For one that tucks away, fold the bib so the pocket has pattern facing up, and bib pattern facing down. (like the pic)


For a pocket that is always there, fold the bib so the pocket has the pattern facing down, and the bib pattern facing up.

Make a couple of stitches at the where the pocket forms a natural corner to help it keep it's shape. (If you are doing a pocket that folds up out the way then just turn it inside out briefly for this stage like the pic). If you are doing a pocket that is always there, your bib should look this way around anyway!

So it should look something like this.

Now add bias binding around the whole bib. Start at the base of the pocket and work up and around until you get to the other side. For a pocket that is always there, sew pattern of bib up, and pocket on top. For a pocket that folds under, sew pattern of bib up, but pocket facing down.

Then attach your 3 sets of poppers, so you should have a set that pop up behind the neck and 2 sets that pop under the arms like this:

And it's finished! Here are some variations on what it might look like!

Finished bib with a pocket that folds under.

Same bib but the pocket is folded behind out of the way.

Same bib design but no pocket at all!

I'm afraid I made 2 bibs with pockets that didn't fold away then gave them away as presents before I remembered to photograph them - oopsie! Sorry guys!


Now all that is left is to pin a little person down and apply!

We hope you enjoy our tutorials and love hearing what you think so please leave us a comment or send me an email to linda@sewingbeefabrics.co.uk
Happy Sewing!

Visit us at www.sewingbeefabrics.co.uk for more tutorials or to see our range of fabrics and accessories.

How to make a new skirt from old jeans

Sewing Bee Fabric Tutorials

How To Make A New Skirt From Old Jeans

 
My favourite pair of jeans were no longer decent... A hole had appeared in the crotch and the legs were getting tatty at the bottom. Looking for a replacement pair I found another pair to condemn...one who's low waist was fine pre-baby but now was just was not flattering in any way. So I snuck off to the sewing machine and came up with this skirt. Excuse the creases in the picture - my clothes had been stuffed in a suitcase to go visiting family! Here's how to refashion your own jeans.

What you will need:

Bias binding (amount needed will depend on your size, so measure the bottom of the pattern once you have drafted it and add a little extra - at least 5cm - to allow for overlap and getting it in place correctly).
3 buttons that need never see the light of day again
Enough wide elastic to comfortably fit your waist.
2 pairs of old jeans

How to make it:

First you need to make your pattern. It needs to comfortably fit over your hips, so measure your hips, divide in half and add a couple of cm. That's the top of your pattern if your jeans were a bad fit. If they were a good fit, once you strip the fabric from them, just lay them on top and start drawing from the hip point.
Next, lay out the legs of your 2 pairs of jeans (or 1 pair cut open) flat side by side in a line. Measure across the 4. That's your bottom measurement. Put both centrally on the paper and join the dots.
How easy was that pattern?! You'll just be cutting 2 of these shapes in fabric.




To cut up your jeans, you want as much denim as possible to play with so very carefully cut out the seams/pockets and waistband. Cut out as many 3 inch wide lengths as you can (if you have skinny jeans you may need to do 2-2 1/2 inch to make use of more material.

Arrange half the strips over your pattern allowing slight overlap of edges for seams. Pin into place and roughly trim.





Sew your seams - I used a 1/4 inch seam allowance (find your sewing machine feet HERE). Pin the piece onto your pattern and trim to the edges of the pattern.

Turn the pattern over and repeat the process on the other side. As I arranged the pieces on the second side, I matched the pattern by lifting the edges and arranging the second side to meet the original piece perfectly.






Once you have sewn and trimmed the second side, turn right sides together and sew the 2 side seams. I then sealed in all the raw edges with an over edge stitch using an over cast foot (available HERE) on my sewing machine.

I added 1 inch bias binding to the bottom of the skirt. I used a bias attaching sewing machine foot (from HERE) to make life quicker but you can feed it on manually too.

I took some wide elastic and made a loop to fit my waist comfortably. I closed the loop by overlapping the elastic slightly then doing a zigzag stitch over the end on each side to seal the edges in and secure. I aligned the elastic to the skirt by marking the loop and skirt into quarters. I did this by laying flat the skirt and elastic flat then folding and placing a pin on each fold. I then stretched the elastic to line up the pins to the skirt pins then secured in place to the outer side of the skirt. Stretching as I sewed, I overlapped the elastic by 2cm over the top of the skirt to hide the raw edge used a 3 step zigzag stitch to fix it permanently in place.

I could have finished there, but I decided to add a finishing touch - 3 little fabric flowers. I made them by finding a little bowl about 2 1/2 - 3 inches diameter. I traced round this 5 times per flower on to the denim. Taking a long piece of thread, I sewed a long running stitch around the outside of a circle then pulled tight like a drawstring. On the same piece of thread, I repeated this with the next 4 cirlces, pushing them tightly together. I stitched the 5th circle to the first, then reinforced the ring with more stitching. Bringing the thread up in the centre, I made a 6th slightly smaller circle out of flattened bias binding that was used to trim the skirt. Before pulling your drawstring closed, pop a button in. Sew a few stitches under the button to secure the fabric tightly over, then stitch around to join it to each petal. Pass the thread down to the underside of the flower and secure edges in at the back by sewing a running stich around the centre.

Repeat twice more and you have your 3 flowers.

Stitch the back of the flower to the skirt.

Repeat a couple more times and you have a cute embellished stripydenim skirt instead of old jeans that were never getting worn again!

We hope you enjoy our tutorials and love hearing what you think so please leave us a comment or send me an email to linda@sewingbeefabrics.co.uk


   

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Draft your own spring cotton top

Sewing Bee Fabrics Tutorial

Draft Your Own Spring Cotton Top

When this beautiful pink fabric arrived around the same time the sun did, I decided it was destined to be a lovely spring cotton top!

What you will need:
Cotton – I used 1 meter x 1.5 meters of fabric from HERE but you may need more or less depending on your size
Optional - Lace trim – I used about 2 meters from HERE

How to make it:
I took my hip and bust measurements and went with the larger of the 2. From this amount, I added 10cm (as you can see on my pictures, this makes a comfortable fit, but if you want a looser fit, or don’t want the side slits at the bottom of the top you will want to add a little more. I wouldn’t recommend adding less).
Divide this number in half. This is the width of your top you are drawing. For the length, measure from the top of your shoulder to your desired length and add about 4cm. Draw this as a big rectangle.
Now the sleeves and shoulder lines are the parts I cheat on. You have 2 options here. You can either use any pattern you already have for a top and just trace these 2 lines, or find a top that fits you well and draw around the seams. Remember though that if you pick a stretchy top and make this top from a material that isn’t stretchy, you will need to allow a little more give. So ideally pick a non-stretchy top to draw round or you’ll have to give it a bit of a stretch as you draw and hope for the best! Just remember to add a little bit after you trace as your seam allowance.
As front sleeve lines differ from back sleeve lines, this is the part where I folded my rectangle pattern in half from neckline to bottom, and treated one side as the front and the other as the back. Then all I need to do is cut the paper in half then cut the fabric on the fold. I find doing it like this means you can cut identical shoulder lines, and neck line widths by folding in half as you cut, then split it in half to cut the different sleeves and neck line shapes.
I wanted the top to look a little more tailored and a little less square so I took out a bit out on each side at my waist too. I find the easiest way to do this is later on once your part way through your sewing then you can pin it perfectly to size, but I drew on the pattern how much I removed so you have an idea of roughly what this should look like.
The last touch is the neck line. I copied the back neck line from the depth and rough width of the top I used for the sleeves. I then drew by freehand the front neckline. I put darts in the top, but like the waist, I waited until part way through the sewing to do this as the larger chested you are, the more dart you are likely to want.
The actual sleeves I didn’t use a pattern for – just did this freehand later – I will show you how!
 


When cutting our your front and back pieces on the fold, keep in mind what pattern you have on your fabric and where that will sit on your body – for example, you may not want 2 big orange birds highlighting your chest, or thick set stripes that don’t line up at the side seams.

Pin together the shoulder pieces and stitch along your seam allowance, sewing them together right sides facing each other.

Now spread the top out opened up so the pattern is facing the floor/table. To make up the sleeves, you want to start with a rectangle (if you are not copying from a pattern for another top). The width of the fabric needed is simply measured from one end of the sleeve opening to the other - I would then add 4 or 5cm for both a seam allowance and allowing for slight bodge ups if the top wasn’t completely straight on the floor when you measured! – Easier to trim a bit off than to make something too short look good! The height of the rectangle will be the measurement from the tip of the shoulder (where the sleeve seam on a t-shirt sits) to the desired sleeve length plus 2cm to allow for a seam and a hem. Cut that out as a rectangle. Leave one end that width (the armpit end), but chances are that you want the sleeve to taper down a little as the arm gets slimmer the lower you go, so measure around your arm at the desired length and slacken off the tape measure until you get to how baggy you want the sleeve (you may want to try sliding this measurement over your hand to make sure you didn’t get too carried away!). This will be the width you want the other end of your rectangle, draw diagonal lines along the height of the sleeve to take off the excess. Hem the end of the sleeve first. Then pin your sleeve being careful to keep it completely flat so you pinch only the edges together (right sides together). Sew the shoulder part of the top to the sleeve.




From the remaining fabric, cut out 2 inch wide strips. Join them until you have a piece long enough to go around your neck line with 5cm extra to allow to overlapping and joining. Attach binding to the neckline. I used a bias making tool and bias binding foot to make the job quicker and neater. You can get them HERE, but you can do it freehand too. If you want more details on how to attach binding, check out my tutorial HERE or how to make your own binding HERE.

I sew the sleeves up and join the body pieces in one go so now is the time I would recommend pinning the top together inside out and very carefully trying it on. Mark with a pin on both sides of your waist how much fabric you want to remove – be careful not to take too much or it won’t move easily. Just bring the excess down in line with how loose it feels over your bust or a little looser. Pinch together the fabric at the corners of the neck line to decide on your dart width. I used 4cm but I’m curvey so you might need more or less.

Trying not to stab yourself, wriggle out of the top and re-align the pins to make sure they are symmetrical. For the dart, I find it easiest to remove the pin then pinch the fabric into a diagonal before sewing.

Trim away excess material at the waist then go ahead and sew from the sleeve end all the way down to about 3 inches from the bottom of the top on each side. Any little errors with lining up should be hidden in the armpit.

To tidy up the side slits, simply press the side seam open, then continue tucking the raw edge under and top stitch in place.

Finish the top by hemming the bottom, and I like to over-edge stitch the inside seams to keep all the raw edges enclosed.


 



Lastly if you like a bit of frill, attach the lace. I picked one with a fairly solid top to it so that it is really quick to hide my stitches attaching and just did a basic top stitch sitting it on the ends of the top. The only tricky bit to it is sorting the ends. All I did was trim around the flower pattern at the side splits.






For the sleeves to overlap the lace without a visible join, I cut around a flower pattern as I did for a side split then overlapped it slightly, trimming the end in a similar way. Hand stitch the layers together all around the edge of the overlapped pattern. I challenge you to spot where I joined it!



And that's it! Top finished.

 

Don't forget here at Sewing Bee Fabrics, we love to see what you've been making, so leave a comment or send us an email to linda@sewingbeefabrics.co.uk